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TurnTheBacon
Fluorite | Level 6

This is an embarrasing question, but what exactly is wrong with using the minus sign to count down a variable, such as inside this do-while loop?

data work.countdown;

count = -1;

do while (count NE -100);

       count -1;

end;

run;

proc print data=work.countdown;

run;

It runs perfectly with a plus sign, but once I use the minus sign the count variable turns red and I get this message in the log: "ERROR 180-322: Statement is not valid or it is used out of proper order."

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
Quentin
Super User

Hi,

The count+1 thing is it's own type of statement, it's a SUM STATEMENT.  It needs to be a plus sign.  There is no equivalent DECREMENT statement.

If you want to do the same (set to 0, retain, use sum function) but decrement, you can do:

count + - 1;

or

count + (-1);

HTH,

--Q.

BASUG is hosting free webinars Next up: Jane Eslinger presenting PROC REPORT and the ODS EXCEL destination on Mar 27 at noon ET. Register now at the Boston Area SAS Users Group event page: https://www.basug.org/events.

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2 REPLIES 2
Quentin
Super User

Hi,

The count+1 thing is it's own type of statement, it's a SUM STATEMENT.  It needs to be a plus sign.  There is no equivalent DECREMENT statement.

If you want to do the same (set to 0, retain, use sum function) but decrement, you can do:

count + - 1;

or

count + (-1);

HTH,

--Q.

BASUG is hosting free webinars Next up: Jane Eslinger presenting PROC REPORT and the ODS EXCEL destination on Mar 27 at noon ET. Register now at the Boston Area SAS Users Group event page: https://www.basug.org/events.
TurnTheBacon
Fluorite | Level 6

Thanks, that answers my question very well. Smiley Happy

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